Names in Japanese

[koekoeka]

As we all know, not all names are Japanese. My name is possible with Hiragana (Aran) But a friend of mine (Marit) cannot be spelled because of the t at the end. How can you write such names in hiragana/katakana?

Koekoeka

[Yuusuke]

Originally Posted by koekoeka

As we all know, not all names are Japanese. My name is possible with Hiragana (Aran) But a friend of mine (Marit) cannot be spelled because of the t at the end. How can you write such names in hiragana/katakana?

Koekoeka

it would be Ma-ri-to or Ma-re-to
or Me-ri-to or Me-re-to
depending on how you pronouce the a and the ri in Marit.

[koekoeka]

Well that would fix the problem =D
She finally knows how her name is spelled in hiragana =)

[Yuusuke]

Originally Posted by koekoeka

Well that would fix the problem =D
She finally knows how her name is spelled in hiragana =)

umm it's in katakana

[SHAD0W]

Originally Posted by koekoeka

Well that would fix the problem =D
She finally knows how her name is spelled in hiragana =)

None japanese names can NOT be written in hiragana! Katakana only!

アラン　A RA N
マリト MA RI TO


In reply to your signature, if your asking questions such as this, you wont be able to teach english to japanese because your japanese isnt strong enough. Its like a mute trying to teach sign language to a blind person. It just aint gonna happen.

[koekoeka]

Originally Posted by SHAD0W

None japanese names can NOT be written in hiragana! Katakana only!

アラン　A RA N
マリト MA RI TO


In reply to your signature, if your asking questions such as this, you wont be able to teach english to japanese because your japanese isnt strong enough. Its like a mute trying to teach sign language to a blind person. It just aint gonna happen.

Yeah, your right.

[KyleGoetz]

koekoeka, please tell us how to pronounce "Aran" and "Marit." What do they rhyme with, etc.?

For example, is "Aran" an alternate spelling of Erin/Aaron? Does "Marit" rhyme with "merit," or is it like "Marie" the French name? Etc.

Because the letters you use in English have nothing to do with how to write names in Japanese. It's all in the pronunciation.

Also, where are you? Because maybe if "Aran" is an alternate spelling of "Aaron," it might even be pronounced differently even between the UK and the US (though I have no idea: I don't recall that I've ever heard the name "Aaron" pronounced by someone outside the US). Granted, this usually doesn't matter, but it might. I'm not familiar with either of the names you've mentioned.

[koekoeka]

It's pretty hard to explain that, because it's dutch. In english it sounds like Aron and Ma(like in day)rit (t a little like a d)

[KyleGoetz]

Here's a tip to everyone out there. If you want to know how to write a foreign name in Japanese, just find a famous person on Wikipedia and on the left-hand side there's a link to articles about the person in the various Wikipedia languages. See how the article renders the name. It's often trivial to do this. I usually do this intead of attempting to transliterate it myself because Japanese does very unexpected things when transliterating names.

Taking koekoeka at his word, "Marit" probably works as either メイリット or マリット. The first is closer to the pronunciation, but Japanese has a tendency to, what I call, anglicize words. For example, "Aaron" in US English sounds like エーロン, but in UK English sounds like アーロンor アロン. Even an American named Aaron tends to have the name アロン when written in Japanese despite the pronunciation difference. Similarly, Marit may end up being マリット or マーリット depending on where the accent is placed in Dutch.

Now, the ending of Marit is less of a problem. Japanese tends to romanize things that end in "d" or "t" sounds as ト. The word "bed" is written ベット, for example.

The caveat with regards to my Wikipedia hint for you is to make sure you find a person whose name is not only spelled like yours, but is sourced the same. Case in point: koekoeka said "Marit" has "a" like in "day." But Marit Allen, a UK journalist, is "a" like "father," so マリット (what you find on Wikipedia for Marit Allen) may not be correct for koekoeka's "Marit."

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that having someone transliterate your name into Japanese when country-of-origin comes into play is nigh impossible over the internet. Consult a local Japanese person face-to-face or someone you can find online who speaks Dutch and Japanese.

On a side note, Marit Larsen (found via Wikipedia) is quite the attractive lady.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

Japanese tends to romanize things that end in "d" or "t" sounds as ト. The word "bed" is written ベット, for example.

Are you sure about this? A search for ベット only gives me ベッド

ベッド - Wikipedia